Permissions Not Copied in Scopy.exe

 Last reviewed: March 11, 1998
Article ID: Q173062
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.51 and 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51 and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you use Scopy.exe to copy a directory tree, the following error may appear: 

   Permissions, auditing, and/or owner could not be copied.
All of the files are copied correctly, but the directories will inherit the permissions of the immediate parent directories.

CAUSE

The account that you are using does not have permission at the List level (or greater) for the directories you are copying.

RESOLUTION

Currently, the only resolution to this problem is to give at least List permission to the account of the user running Scopy.exe.

In addition to List permission, the resource kit documentation states that Scopy.exe tries to use the following user privileges in these cases:

  • Backup Files and Folders, which allows you to copy files when your access is normally restricted at the source.
  • Restore Files and Folders, which allows you to use the /o switch to copy files that are not your own.
  • Manage Auditing and the Security Log, which allows you to use the /a switch.

The resource kit documentation also gives the syntax for Scopy.exe as the following: 

   SCopy <source> <destination> [/o] [/a] [/s] [/?]
   Example: SCopy G:\from\*.* H:\to\ /s
This syntax uses the following variables:
  • source, which specifies the place from which files will be copied
  • destination, which specifies the place to which the files will be copied
  • /o, which copies owner security information
  • /a, which copies security auditing information
  • /s, which copies all files in sub-folders
  • /?, which shows all command-line options

NOTE: To copy your own files, you do not require any special user privileges. To use the /o or /a switches, or to copy other users' files to which you do not ordinarily have access, you must be logged on as a member of the Administrators group on both the computer where you are copying the files from and on the computer you are copying files to.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT versions 3.51 and 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: acl xcopy security permissions
Keywords : kbbug3.51 kbbug4.00 ntdomain ntfilesys ntsecurity NTSrvWkst
Version : WinNT:3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Hardware : x86
Issue type : kbbug
Solution Type : kbpending

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Last reviewed: March 11, 1998
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